Cocktail #37: Zombie

Yikes! It's been over a month since my last post. The last few weeks have been hectic with travel for work, visiting family, and an uptick in my day job. I'm hoping to get back on a weekly schedule going forward!

This week, due to the kindness and generosity of a couple new friends, I was able to tackle the venerable cocktail, the Zombie.

A few weeks back fellow appreciator of all things tiki, the Meek Tiki (aka Lucas), his wife, and a friend visited Chicago for a long weekend from Minneapolis, and we met up at Three Dots and a Dash, naturally. They mentioned halfway through drinks that they had forgotten to bring a bottle they intended to give to me as a gift - a bottle of Lemon Hart 151. A while back, I had commented on a photo of his with that rum in it and mentioned that I had never seen this available - even at my go to beverage super-store, Binny's. I must have looked crestfallen, because a few weeks after their visit, an odd-shaped package arrived at my door - packed like a champ, they had sent me that bottle of Lemon Hart (and a handmade tiki cocktail pick from artist Michael Grider)! I'd seen so many drink recipes that had called for it and never been able to find it, and hadn't gotten around to sourcing an alternative Demerara 151 proof rum (check out the Five Minutes of Rum podcast episode that covers the history of the Lemon Hart brand and other 151 rum). So Lucas and Amber - thank you! I've put it to good use this week.

Ok, onto the drink. I sourced this Zombie recipe from Jeff "Beachbum" Berry's Potions of the Caribbean. It seems to be the definitive Zombie recipe. The Zombie was created by Donn the Beachcomber, circa 1934. Donn was notoriously secretive with his cocktail recipes, and he never published this one. So up until Berry unearthed it in Donn's headwaiter Dick Santiago's notebook, and published it for the first time in 2007 in Sippin' Safari, all attempts at recreating it were just best guesses.

Berry notes that the Zombie was likely a cocktail of its time - "after the privations of Prohibition, here was a poke in the eye of the Anti-Saloon League: an instant bender, with so much booze in it that Donn would serve 'only two to a customer.'"

So, here it is:

1.50 oz. gold Puerto Rican rum (I used Bacardi gold)
1.50 oz. aged Jamaican rum (I used Plantation Original Dark)
1.00 oz. Lemon Hart 151-proof Demerara rum
0.75 oz. fresh lime juice
0.50 oz. Don's mix*
0.50 oz. falernum
6 drops (1/8 tsp) Pernod
1 teaspoon of grenadine
Dash Angostura bitters
6.00 oz. crushed ice

* 2 parts white grapefruit juice (I was lucky to find white grapefruit again at the market) to 1 part Don's Spices #4 (cinnamon syrup)

Put everything in a blender. Blend at high speed for no more than 5 seconds. Pour into a chimney glass (I used a tiki mug). Add ice cubes to fill. Garnish with a sprig of mint.

This drink knocked my socks off.

I'd ordered a Zombie a handful of times over the years at various bars, and I can't say any of them were all that memorable, other than being strong and probably a bit fruity. This sucker was a whole different animal. Next to the Mai Tai, this cocktail is definitely a favorite. It's both spicy and citrusy, and has the faintest note of anise from the few drops of Pernod. The Lemon Hart provides some heat for sure, but it's not unpleasantly burning like you might expect a higher proof rum to be. Dilution of the ice works in the drink's favor as it mellows it out a bit after a few minutes.

The Zombie is a wonderfully complex and enjoyable exotic cocktail - unlike any of the previous 36 that I have made in the past year. Find a bottle of Lemon Hart 151 and make one yourself! Thanks again Lucas!

Cocktail #36: Captain's Grog

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming!

As Lloyd Bridges' character in Airplane! may have said, I picked a hell of a month to temporarily quit drinking. A fake president, talking about fake news when he doesn't like it, who tried to ban a whole group of people from our country ... well, it's been stressful, and rage-inducing. I lasted until about the 25th when we went out with a couple of our best friends to one of my favorite bars in Chicago, the Orbit Room. Anyway ... on to this week's fully loaded cocktail!

Hula Girl by my talented, Sculpy-crazy wife - www.jenlimarzi.com!

Ever since my attempt at making a Navy Grog months ago, with the failure of my ice cone, I've wanted to try again. Especially since my better half bought me Jeff Berry's ice cone kit for my birthday a couple months back. Turns out the Navy Grog isn't the only grog in the log ... The Captain's Grog also traditionally used an ice cone. So, last week I made a couple ice cones, which is itself a process. Even with the ice cone kit, I was having trouble getting them to work. I couldn't get them out of the mold without crumbling, or the straw hole was too small. After a little Googling, I read that if your snow ice -- ice you've made in your blender for example -- is too "dry" or too cold, it can make it difficult. So after some adjustments (pack the cone, wait a couple of minutes for the ice to melt very slightly, and then try to extract carefully), I was able to make two usable ice cones.

The Captain's Grog, according to our good friend Berry, originates from the Captain's Inn, Long Beach, Calif., circa 1962. The Captain's Inn contained the Hukilau Polynesian Room, which I assumed served many of these fine cocktails in its heydey.

Here's the recipe:

• 0.50 oz. fresh lime juice
• 0.50 oz. fresh grapefruit juice (strangely I found white grapefruit at my market, which I NEVER see - many old school tiki cocktails call for white grapefruit, which isn't as sweet as the ruby reds we mostly see today)
• 0.50 oz. maple syrup
• 0.50 oz. Falernum
• 0.50 oz. orange Curacao
• 1.00 oz soda water
• 3 drops vanilla extract
• 3 drops almond extract
• 0.75 oz. Myers's rum
• 0.50 oz. light Puerto Rican rum
• 0.50 oz. dark Puerto Rican rum

(As you can see, I ran out of Myers's and instead substituted Mt. Gay, which was probably lighter than the original recipe intended. I'm also currently without any Puerto Rican or Virgin Islands rum, so I used a light Havana Club along with Plantation Dark. I probably should have swapped the Plantation for the Mt. Gay, but what can you do.)

Add all the ingredients* to a cocktail shaker and fill with ice cubes. Shake vigorously. Strain into a double old fashioned glass either filled with crushed ice or with an ice cone. Garnish with mint and cocktail cherry - and whatever the hell else you want!

* Berry doesn't specify adding the soda water after shaking, but one would assume you would just top the cocktail with soda water to avoid too much fizz while shaking. I took a couple of sips before I remembered to add the soda water and it was delightful either way - obviously a little stronger all around before the soda.

That's a long list of ingredients. I admit this is not the most approachable cocktail - the sheer number of ingredients, some hard to find, along with the whole ice cone thing ... but readers, I tell you this: it's worth the trouble.

For me, the Captain's Grog rates up there near the mighty Mai-Tai, my all time favorite cocktail. I found it was a little sweeter than a Mai-Tai - perhaps the maple syrup gave it a little extra sweet kick, but it wasn't overpowering at all. Really nicely balanced drink, with all the rums settling in nicely and playing well together with the rest of the ingredients. The ice cone is a novel addition, and if you can manage to make a few for when you have people over, your guests will undoubtedly enjoy them.

For this week's entertainment, I present to you the lovely Annette Funicello, doing "Pineapple Princess" set to some clips of her Hawaiian films. Enjoy, and cheers!

Cocktail #35: Northsider Dry Ginger Spritz

Drynuary continues ...

This week we have another non-alcoholic drink that echoes many flavors of a true fully loaded exotic cocktail.

After last week's complete and utter failure, I decided that I would mostly go it alone for the rest of the month and try to come up with a few recipes of my own that had a little more nuance, and were more interesting than just a glass full of juice, seltzer, and grenadine.

After considering a few of the non-alcoholic ingredients in some of my favorite drinks that usually complement rum, I rounded up a few that seemed like they could stand on their own, no rum needed. The Northsider Dry Ginger Spritz was born:

• 3.00 oz. ginger beer (not ginger ale)
• 0.50 oz. cinnamon syrup*
• 2 drops vanilla syrup**
• 0.50 oz. grapefruit juice
• 0.50 oz. lime juice
• 0.25 oz. orgeat
• 2 dashes bitters (I used Fee Brothers "Old Fashion Aromatic" which is totally alcohol-free; be careful with bitters if you are making a non-alcoholic drink for someone who absolutely cannot have any - many bitters do contain alcohol)
• 1 tsp maraschino cherry syrup (again, be careful here - I used my homemade maraschino cherry syrup, which does technically contain alcohol; the store bought stuff is probably ok)

Add all ingredients -- except ginger beer -- to a cocktail shaker with about a cup of crushed ice. Shake vigorously. Add a half-cup or cup of crushed ice to the vessel of your choice - a double old fashioned glass would have worked here too - and open pour the contents of the shaker into the glass. Top with the ginger beer and give a quick swizzle to combine. I garnished with a cinnamon stick, maraschino cherry, and lime wheel.

* To make cinnamon syrup, boil 1 cup of water with 2 halved cinnamon sticks over high heat in a saucepan. Add 2 cups granulated sugar and stir until dissolved, about 1 minute. Immediately remove from heat. Cover and let sit at room temp for 12-24 hours. Strain through a cheesecloth and/or fine mesh strainer into a bowl and then use a funnel to bottle it. It'll keep refrigerated for a few weeks.

** If I had more time, I would have made my own vanilla syrup using a whole vanilla bean, using a similar method to cinnamon syrup, but instead I used good old Torani sugar-free vanilla syrup. Does the job.

Verdict: I loved this drink! This is definitely one of my favorite drinks of the past 34, alcohol or not. Normally I don't care for ginger beer on its own, but with the cinnamon spice and the grapefruit/lime citrus, it really mellowed out what I find to be a fairly potent and harsh ginger flavor of the ginger beer, and added a few more levels to the drink. There was nothing syrupy sweet or too tart about this cocktail, unlike a lot of other alcohol-free tiki drinks out there. This is also incredibly easy to create in a batch - just multiply the ingredients above (except for ginger beer) by the number of drinks and get ready to go in a large cocktail shaker. When you're ready to serve, add ice, shake up, pour, and add ginger beer. Your teetotaler guest will love this one and they won't miss the booze.

Speaking of teetotalers, here's an interesting clip about temperance warrior, Carry Nation, known for smashing up saloons with various implements of destruction (most infamously, a hatchet) in the early years of the last century. And let us be thankful that we can now choose temperance for ourselves, and not at the behest of a religious nut or the government!

Cheers, drinkers and abstainers alike!

Cocktail #34: Queen Charlotte Fruit Punch

Drynuary.

A terrible name for what is probably a great idea.

After all the excesses of the holiday season, I decided to start 2017 off right and not drink alcohol for the month of January, following the example of John Ore (subject of article linked above) who has been doing Drynuary for 10 Januaries.

But what about the blog? The tiki drink project? Well, doing this little reset was more important. Plus, it gives me a chance to explore the niche of non-alcoholic tiki drinks. Oh yes, they exist. And let's be thankful they do, because if you're throwing a tiki-themed party, it's always a great idea to have drinks available for either drivers or teetotalers alike that are just as attractive and taste just as great as the drinks with some ammunition in them.

Jeff Berry has a couple non-alcoholic drinks in the Grog Log and so does the Trader Vic's Tiki Party book, which is also a great source for Hawaiian/tiki-themed party food recipes.

Unfortunately the drink I chose sucks.

The Queen Charlotte Fruit Punch is a mix of fruit juice, passion fruit syrup, and grenadine. It was cloyingly sweet at first and then turned extremely tart. There really is nothing redeeming about this one, even though Trader Vic himself apparently came up with it in the '70s. Little kids or juice-box addicted adults might like it and get a kick out of it. But I'd advise skipping this one.

Here's the recipe if you're interested:

I'm currently letting some Smuggler's Cove Cinnamon Syrup steep and I have some ideas for my own non-alcoholic tiki drinks that don't involve so much juice. Stay tuned for the next one!

Artwork on the wall by Nat Reed. 

Cocktail #33: Corn and Oil

Corn and Oil. Not a terribly evocative or attractive name for an exotic cocktail is it? But this one goes back a long time, long before Donn the Beachcomber or Trader Vic set up shop in the 1930s. Corn and Oil is a traditional drink from Barbados, and the version I present below is adapted from the traditional recipe by Martin Cate of Smuggler's Cove.

There are numerous recipes online for Corn and Oil with differing proportions of ingredients. Many use a very dark or Black Strap Rum, and Cruzan offers a version which seems popular. However, I stuck with a Barbados rum (Mount Gay) since this purports to originate from Barbados. It doesn't get much more simple that this (you don't even need a cocktail shaker!):

0.50 oz. John D. Taylor's Velvet Falernum
2.00 oz. blended aged rum (Barbados) - I used Mount Gay - not aged - see below
2 - 4 dashes Angostura bitters

Add all the ingredients to an old fashioned glass and fill with crushed ice. Stir to combine until frost forms on the outside of the glass.

Cate notes that there should be no garnish with this one, but I couldn't resist adding a lime wheel, a couple sprigs of mint, and a pink flamingo straw.

Given the simplicity of this drink, the rum that you use becomes more important. Hence why Martin Cate suggests using not only a Barbados rum, but one that is aged. The Mount Gay Eclipse I used in this cocktail was probably not an ideal choice - it felt a little sharp. Using a longer aged, darker rum like an El Dorado 5 or 8 Year or a Mount Gay Black Barrel probably would have been a better fit (add one of those to my shopping list!). The falernum and Angostura bitters I felt enhanced the sharpness or spiciness of the drink which made it a little less palatable. After I had drank about half of it, I squeezed a quarter of a lime into the glass and that bit of citrus took the edge off a bit and made it more enjoyable (though obviously less traditional).

Given how simple this cocktail is, this is worth a try if you have the right rum for it. I'll revisit this one after my next trip to Binny's! Cheers, and happy holidays!

Cocktail #32: Juan Ho Royale

I'm a sucker for blue drinks, I admit it.

Blue curacao has such a bad rap in some exotic cocktail circles. And probably for good reason - it conjures images of really crummy, watered down, artificial drinks you might see served on a cruise or at a Sandals resort. But used sparingly, I kind of love it. There's something very fun about a shockingly blue drink. So, when I was paging through Martin Cate's wonderful Smugger's Cove book and came across a drink that not only seemed relatively straightforward, but also contained all ingredients I had on hand including blue curacao, I figured I'd give it a try. It's also the first drink I've made in this series that uses tequila, which is a welcome change.

The Juan Ho Royale was created by Martin Cate himself, for the tiki bar Hula's in Santa Cruz, CA, in honor of a surf spot called Steamer Lane. Cate notes, on his use of blue curacao, "To capture the azure seas, I make a rare exception for blue curacao." Here's Cate's recipe:

2.00 oz. Champagne or sparkling wine
0.75 oz. fresh lime juice
0.50 oz. orgeat
0.50 oz. blue curacao
0.50 oz. John D. Taylor's Velvet Falernum
1.50 oz. tequila blanco

Pour the sparkling wine into a chilled coupe. Add the remaining ingredients to a cocktail shaker and shake with cracked or cubed ice. Double-strain into the chilled coupe.

He notes, "garnish - none" but I thought a lime wheel pinned to a cocktail cherry with a flamingo pick dressed this drink up nicely.

This was a nice departure from rum, which dominates many of the 31 previous drinks. As you can see, I used regular old Trader Joe's tequila blanco - nothing too fancy. Tequila blanco is tequila that has little or no aging so the alcohol presence or "burn" is felt a bit more than an aged tequila, as is the agave flavor. It might not be the best quality tequila, but mixed in this cocktail it was just fine. The agave and slight smokiness of the tequila are the most noticeable flavors, and the falernum adds a nice hint of spiciness. The sparkling wine's carbonation is also a nice feature, not something you get in many tiki drinks. And of course it's electric blue! This would be a really nice, simple cocktail to serve at holiday and New Years parties, the sparkling wine adding a bit of festivity.

A Note About Photography

Apart from wanting to learn more about exotic cocktails and their history, the other reason I started this project was to force myself to take more pictures and get better at it. I use a Nikon D300 DSLR for all the photos on this blog and lately, I've been experimenting with off-camera flash techniques for lighting. Of course there's plenty of inspiration for nicely photographing cocktails on Instagram, etc. which has been helpful. If  you're also a photography geek who's been experimenting with off-camera flash, I'd love to hear from you. Tips? Tricks? Cool effects? Let me know!

I'll probably have at least one more post before 2016 comes to a close, but I'd like to wish you all a very mele kalikimaka and a fabulous New Year! Be safe, and enjoy.

Cocktail #31: Flaming Coffee Grog

This is without a doubt the most complicated drink I've ever made. I originally stumbled upon this cocktail in Jeff Berry's Grog Log. Given that the temperatures here in Chicago are starting to dip into the teens and single digits, and partly inspired by my blogger friend The Meek Tiki who recently conquered Hot Buttered Rum, I thought it was high time I tried a hot tiki drink.

There's not much background by Berry on this one other than, "circa 1950s." I assume this would have been served as an after-dinner drink in a 1950s tiki palace after a few too many Zombies and pu-pu platters. It's a showpiece, and would have been finished tableside to show off the flaming effect.

***

Before I go any further, whenever you're messing around with fire and alcohol, use extreme caution. Do not make this after you've had a few, and do not light anything up near anything flammable like tiki bar decor. I literally had a fire extinguisher right at my feet ready to go, and you should too. Please read Crikiti's post on home tiki bar fire safety.

***

Ok, back to the drink. After reading Berry's recipe and Googling around a bit, I ended up using parts from two different recipes (possibly a mistake).

Berry's:

3.00 tsp. Lopez coconut cream
0.25 oz. Grand Marnier
Hot black coffee (about 6 oz. should do it)
Twist of orange peel
Twist of lemon peel
2 whole cloves
Eight inch cinnamon stick
0.75 oz. 151 Demerarra rum

I found what purports to be the "ancestor recipe" (attributed to Don the Beachcomber's book, Hawaii Tropical Rum Drinks and Cuisine) on the Atomic Grog blog:

2.00 cups hot Kona coffee
3.00 teaspoons honey cream mix*
1/2 tsp. teaspoon cinnamon
1.00 oz. dark Jamaican rum (Kohala Bay or equivalent)
1.00 oz 151 rum (Lemon Hart Demerara recommended)**
6 strips of lemon peel
6 strips of orange peel

The ingredients in light blue are the ones I used. Here's the method I used (largely the same between the two, and largely copied from Atomic Grog):

Combine the rum, cinnamon, cloves, and citrus peels in a heat-proof pitcher or pot. Stir, set aside and let the rum soak into the peels.

Into a small pan, pour the hot Kona coffee and add the honey mix. Slowly heat. Pour heated (but not boiling) mixture into a coffee grog mug. Take the pitcher and coffee mug to a serving table.

With chopsticks, remove a piece of the orange or lemon peel and set afire. Plunge the peel back into the pitcher, setting the rum mixture ablaze.

If possible, pick up the flaming citrus peel pieces and drop them into the coffee grog mug. Pour the flaming rum into the glass, stir with chopsticks and serve.

* For the honey cream mix: In separate small bowls, heat equal parts sweet (unsalted) butter and honey (I also added a dash of half and half). Then combine and whisk until well blended. Use immediately

** Since I did not have 151 Demerara, I instead used regular-proof Hamilton Demerara, and 151 Don Q.

Still with me?

Unfortunately I do not have a flaming skull mug that this would normally be served in, so I used a rum barrel from the Tonga Hut. I carefully set the contents of the pitcher ablaze and did my best to pour a stream of flame into the coffee. Doing this, and photographing the spectacle yourself is a bit of a challenge, so the photos could be better (I should have turned down the lights, naturally). But you get the idea.

How does it taste? Well, given all the effort I put in, I wish I could say I enjoyed it more. For me, the orange/citrus aroma dominated the drink, even when bringing it near my nose to take a sip. I definitely used too much orange peel and should have only used one. I just couldn't get past the citrus/coffee mix, and I ended up only drinking about half of it. With a reduction in citrus, I can see how this would be a fairly pleasant after-dinner drink, and I have to think that most of the alcohol gets burned off during all the flaming, so it's not very potent.

If nothing else, it's a real showstopper if you do it right for your guests (safely!).

For your holiday viewing pleasure, I give you the wonderful Judy Garland Christmas Special from 1963. Enjoy!